


Waiting Zone

by Tarlan



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-05-09
Updated: 2004-05-09
Packaged: 2017-10-19 04:54:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes a potentially fatal case of food poisoning for Mulder to realize what Alex means to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting Zone

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for THE CUBE - transpose M and K into another TV series - challenge. This was my entry :-)  
> SERIES: Burning Zone   
>  \-- Mulder as Daniel Cassian   
>  \-- Krycek as Edward Marcase

They were the Crisis Management Team, the CMC; an elite team of doctors and scientists called in to investigate outbreaks of disease before even the CDC. It was their job to try to identify and neutralize any biological threat before it could be unleashed upon the innocent. So why was it, that with all their technology, and with all their combined expertise, one of their number was dying from what should have been an everyday bug.

Mulder rubbed eyes that were tired from spending too long looking through a microscope. He slumped back into his chair, eyes closed, letting his head roll from side to side as he tried to ease the tension in his neck and back. The aroma of fresh coffee caught at his senses and he opened his eyes to find Scully standing beside him, her cerulean blue eyes filled with concern.

"This isn't helping him."

Mulder barked out a short laugh. Of course this wasn't helping. Nothing seemed to be helping. Twenty hours ago one of his best scientists, Alex Krycek, had come down with a mild case of salmonella after eating poorly cooked chicken from Mulder's favorite Chinese takeaway.

Salmonella.

Yes, it could be lethal, but not to someone strong like Alex Krycek. Not to someone who had survived far more lethal diseases such as Ebola. Alex had lost his parents to Ebola at a tender age; had been forced to watch them die slowly as their innards liquefied. Like their brilliant son, they had been doctors too, working in Africa to try to find a cause and a cure for the terrible disease that eventually took them as well.

Salmonella.

He should have been a little sick to his stomach, spending a few days in bed feeling miserable... not fighting for his life in the intensive care unit attached to the CMC, surrounded by machines, attached to drips feeding him concentrated doses of antibiotics along with fluid replacement -- all to no effect.

Mulder grimaced as he recalled his last sight of Alex, looking so small amongst all the equipment; like a child in an oversize bed. His dark hair had hung in wet strands across a forehead beaded with sweat, long eyelashes fluttering in fitful sleep, his bowed lips bloodless and slack from the fatigue of fighting the bacteria that had almost overwhelmed his immune system.

The ivory pallor of his face had turned into a ghost mask; far too pale. He lay motionless, his limbs too heavy to move of their own volition.

And he was dying... of Salmonella poisoning.

Why?

Scully took the seat next to him, her slumped shoulders displaying her own fatigue. She pulled off her glasses and laid them on the bench before pushing a hand through strands of red hair that had escaped from the band tying them back. They sipped at the strong coffee in silence, both deep in thought, but Mulder didn't need to ask her thoughts.

When Alex first joined the team as their leading Virologist, Scully had not been too pleased as she held Alex personally responsible for the death of her sister, Melissa. Melissa had been a doctor too, and Alex had worked with Melissa during a fresh outbreak of Ebola in a small African village. Unfortunately, the villagers would not allow them to examine the bodies of the deceased unless they helped with the funeral ceremony; washing and preparing the body.

Unlike Melissa, Alex was immune to Ebola, being one of the very few people to have contracted the disease--and survived. As far as Scully was concerned, Alex should have prevented Melissa from going anywhere near the body but he didn't... and Melissa contracted the deadly disease and died.

Their working relationship had been strained at first but Mulder had put up with that in order to have these two top scientists in their respective fields on his team. Eventually, Scully came to respect Alex for his expertise and as their working relationship improved, she gradually learned a little more of the circumstances surrounding her sister's death. Melissa had always been strong willed and even though Alex had tried to convince her to let him do the ritual alone, the other doctor, Cardinal, had twisted his words to make it look as if he was glory-seeking at her expense.

Mulder glanced across at her, seeing the exhaustion in her delicate features.

Respect had turned to friendship and, as a team, they had performed miracles. They had discovered the source of a flesh eating microbe in a box of tattoo ink. They had found the reason for the sudden brittleness of bone in a number of outpatients from a cancer research program after discovering those people had been used as human guinea pigs in unlawful genetic experiments. They even uncovered a plot by a secretive part of the government to use a mostly black high school community as guinea pigs for the trial of a new toxin to control high emotions. As a side effect, the toxin caused the body tissues of an emotionally charged individual to combust... spontaneous human combustion.

All that good work couldn't end here.

Alex couldn't end here... brought down by a mild case of food poisoning that took a sudden left turn into becoming a fatal condition.

What would he do without Alex Krycek? It was not like scientists of his caliber grew on trees. And he was an exceptional scientist; full of insatiable curiosity, an expert in the field of Virology, and also determined to bring down the culprits who would bring such biological devastation down upon the innocent.

Alex was more than just a scientist, he was a fighter too... strong, intelligent, beautiful... WHOAH... Mulder hissed as he splashed some of the hot coffee over his leg, and quickly set the mug back down on the bench. 'Where did that thought come from? Why beautiful?' he thought.

The image of Alex lying so still and sick in the room next door came back full force but Mulder shut it out as other images assailed his eidetic memory...

That first day they met while he was trying to sort through some top secret surveillance tapes his security operative, Skinner, had made of the illicit experimentation by a pharmaceutical company. Alex had looked so young that day... so green... that it was hard to believe he was the same man who had come to him so highly recommended.

He had shoved out his hand in introduction, and Mulder recalled the feel of the warm, strong fingers curling around his own for a moment. Green eyes, bright and quick like the brain behind them, had taken stock of him just as quickly and, recalling that first meeting, Mulder wondered for the first time if there had been more than just professional appraisal behind the wide-eyed inspection.

Other memories flowed on, focusing on the green eyes fringed with the longest, darkest lashes Mulder had ever seen; his joy at discovering the cause of an outbreak of a tropical disease in a small suburban area, his fear when Mulder had been infected after a breakdown in the laboratories safety system; and the warmth in those eyes on other occasions, for no reason... other than just being with him?

Mulder rubbed his eyes once more, feeling the grit from lack of sleep and knowing they would be red rimmed and bloodshot should he bother to waste time by looking at them in a mirror.

"How is he, Scully?"

"Not good. He hasn't got long. I've tried everything I can think of... but nothing's working."

Mulder looked at the petite redhead, seeing the genuine regret and self-directed anger in her equally tired eyes. He had brought her onto the team because of her additional expertise in both autopsy and intensive care and, until now, it never occurred to him how hard it had to be for her. One day she might be fighting to keep a person alive, and the next day she could be up to her elbows in their innards trying to figure out why they died while under her care.

And what about Alex?

Mulder felt a sharpness in his chest, sucking the air from his lungs at the thought of losing Alex, of seeing his beautiful body desecrated by the razor sharp cut of an autopsy knife.

He wanted Alex warm and alive. He wanted to see those soft green eyes open, wanted to hear the husky voice teasing him as they discussed theoretical situations and covert operations. He wanted to reach out and touch the warm, living flesh; to hear the ragged breaths turn to gasps of pleasure, and to smell -- and taste --the pure musk of male sweat and passion.

'Hell of a time to figure out how much he means to you,' he thought even as he groaned and rubbed his hand across his tired eyes once more.

"You need to take a break, Mulder." Scully had reached out, her small fingers finding his hand.

"They'll be plenty of time to take a break later."

His voice cracked at the thought of why there might be so much time. He still couldn't understand why someone as healthy as Alex could succumb to such a common bacterial infection when he had survived the ravages of the deadly Ebola that ate a man from the inside out...

And why did his thoughts keep returning to Ebola? There was no similarity between that deadly virus and the salmonella bacterium... unless...

"These blood samples? You took them?"

"Hmm... no... Marita took them." Mulder saw the deep frown lines appear on Scully's face, as he took in this information. "Is there a problem with that?"

"I don't know, but I want a fresh blood sample. NOW. And I want you take it."

"Okay... but I don't--"

"Please. Just humor me," he implored, trying to dredge up a smile for her but knowing from her expression that it most probably came across as a grimace.

She left immediately, returning a few minutes later with the sample he had requested. Mulder took a single droplet and placed it into the state-of-the-art microscope. He looked closely at the alien microbes causing so much havoc, suddenly understanding why his thoughts had kept returning to Ebola.

The bacteria under his gaze looked like Salmonella, but the innards had been liquefied, replaced instead by a virus masquerading as Salmonella. They'd been fighting the wrong battle within Alex's body... and Marita, the specialist nurse and laboratory assistant that Alex had requested Mulder remove from the team only the day before, had concealed its presence by supplying them with a pure Salmonella sample.

"Take a look."

He watched Scully, hearing her small gasp of shock even as he gave instructions to Skinner. He didn't need to tell her what to do next as she raced from the room with Mulder following right behind. They reached the small intensive care unit at the same time as Skinner, who had been pacing outside in fear for his friend -- and colleague's -- life.

Skinner had a hold of Marita and was leading her away but Scully ignored all this, moving straight to the extensive medical storage area where she began to pull out particular combinations of vials.

"Why?" Mulder's voice was so low that it barely carried over the sound of the monitors and the ragged breathing of the sick man.

"Because he said I was incompetent, but who looks incompetent now, Doctor Mulder?" She spat out his title in disgust.

Mulder nodded his head and Skinner marched her from the room. He swallowed hard as he looked across at the frail body lying close to death.

My incompetence.

Scully was injecting the contents of a vial into the line, and then she stepped back.

"All we can do now is wait, and hope he's still strong enough to fight." She looked up at Mulder and her eyes narrowed. "You're not incompetent, Mulder. She was our assistant, someone we thought we could trust--"

"I should have trusted no one, not with Alex--"

"No." She laid her small hand upon his arm once more. "You have to trust... especially for Alex... and especially in this work. But, maybe, we shouldn't trust so blindly in future."

Mulder sighed heavily and pulled out the seat beside Alex, slumping into its comfortable contours. His work in the laboratory was done, and all that remained now was to watch over Alex in the hope that, somehow, he could strengthen the weakened man by his presence alone.

The hours passed so slowly that Mulder felt as if time had simply stopped, and eventually tiredness overtook him as he lay his head down onto the bed.

He heard the softest sigh from the bed, and looked up at the feel of fingers lightly caressing his hair. Green eyes, heavy and dilated with weakness, were trying to focus on him. Mulder couldn't stop the grin that gave expression to his joy at seeing Alex aware of his surroundings. The doctor in him forced his eyes away for a moment to glance at the steadily beeping monitors and when he looked back, there was affection in the eyes that could not be disguised.

Mulder grasped Alex's hand, entwining their fingers.

"We have some talking to do... and, hopefully, far more besides... when you're strong enough."

Alex looked down at their joined hands, then back up. He nodded delicately, smiling softly, and then his eyes closed as he sank back into a restorative sleep. Mulder reached out to caress the fine features, fingers tracing the ghost of a smile that still curved Alex's soft lips. He had no doubt that Alex would pull through now.

And then... they would have that talk.

END

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